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Synopsis

The Madras High Court has recently directed YouTuber Joe Micheal Praveen to compensate politician and trans person Apsara Reddy with Rs 50 lakh for disseminating defamatory material and videos on social media and YouTube.

The order was passed by the bench of Justice N Sathish Kumar on a plea moved by Reddy, a prominent speaker, journalist, and AIADMK spokesperson accusing Praveen of repeatedly making defamatory posts against her.

After carefully examining the videos and posts submitted by Reddy, court, in an order on January 4, concluded that they were defamatory and lacked any effort on Praveen's part to verify their accuracy.

It emphasized that while the right to post on YouTube exists, it must not infringe upon the privacy of others. Court highlighted the serious impact defamatory statements on social media can have, particularly when they touch upon an individual's character, behavior, and personal life.

Before the high court, Reddy submitted that Praveen, in 2017, had sought collaboration for a joint video program when she was working as an editor at a renowned magazine. However, when Reddy declined, Praveen allegedly began spreading negative information about her. As a consequence, several speaking engagements Reddy had been invited to were canceled. Reddy sought Rs 1.25 crores in damages for the stress and mental agony she had to face due to the defamatory posts by Praveen.

Court concurred that Praveen's posts had caused significant damage and humiliation to Reddy, lowering her reputation and resulting in the abrupt cancellation of her programs.

However, court pointed out that defamatory YouTube videos had already been by Google and Reddy had also given up the relief sought against it. Therefore, court ordered Praveen to pay the damages to Reddy while dismissing the case against Google. 

Case Title: Apsara Reddy v. Joe Micheal Praveen and Another